Life Obscura

For the past few weeks, I’ve been back in Seattle, largely for the Seattle International Film Festival (which has a full week left, so go see some films!) but also of course to see all the wonderful friends that I miss terribly.

Of course, me being me, the topic of movie recommendations has come up numerous times on this trip, both in relation to SIFF and just in general, seeing as how I can’t resist telling people they just HAVE to watch some film or another. Eventually it was suggested that I collect some of recommendations into a more concrete lists for people to reference, and I fell upon this task with a little too much fervor. My initial list was 39 films and still kept growing!

I did discover a theme within that list: films I can’t resist recommending, but are somehow weird or bizarre or extreme - not your run-of-the-mill Hollywood feature. So for my first concrete set of recommendations, it seemed appropriate to explore that theme, as divisive and strange as they may be. Here’s my ‘full disclosure’ comment: I enjoyed ALL of these films. You may not. That is okay. Many of these are really weird, so-called art house films, and those aren’t for everyone. Anyway, fair warning should you decide to make a movie night or two from this list!

So IMDb recently added a feature to their iOS app that provides a “You May Know Them From” section on every person’s page based on your ratings. Basically, if a person you look up was in something you rated, it tells you what that thing was, shortening the amount of time you stare at a person’s face thinking ‘they look so familiar…’ Now, this is a great thing, but I’ve been a bit of a purist in my rating systems so far on IMDb (for a lot of reasons, none of which are really that important), and that means I hadn’t rated any TV shows. But some people I know from TV shows… and I wanted to know WHICH TV shows… and so I recently bulk rated a ton of TV shows on IMDb.

Rating TV shows is very hard for me to do, because one of my purist principles is wanting to only rate things I have finished, and there are SO MANY TV shows that I haven’t finished, because I’m sorry, but I can’t be expected to watch all twenty thousand seasons of shows like ‘Supernatural’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’ when I have other things to do in life (like watch a ton of movies). Not to mention the fact that with most TV shows, the most rateable part of them is individual seasons (for example, season one of ‘Buffy’ is quite silly and campy, but by season six, which I kind of love, it had gotten way darker and is, in a sense, a very different show), but this is the one TV rating that IMDb does not allow you to make. The horrors.

This is a really long-winded way of saying that right now, my IMDb ratings list is very messed up, and nowhere near an accurate representation of what I have watched recently, so thank god for the Check-Ins function. Also, I may have used my messy ratings list as an excuse to procrastinate writing this wrap-up. Maybe.

‘A Private War’ is the story of Marie Colvin, a foreign affairs journalist for The Sunday Times who spent much of her career telling stories from the front lines of war zones. One of those wars killed her, as it killed over half a million people, in Syria. She was one of the brave, those willing to go in and tell the stories of the people whose homes, families, and lives were forfeit to the cruelties of war and the apathy of the outside world. Rosamund Pike does a tremendous job, giving an incredibly powerful performance as Colvin, capturing both her courage and her flaws as you see the toll a lifetime of exposure to these horrors takes. Surrounding her, you see the war torn cities and peoples that she sought to open our eyes to - the innocents, the civilians, those who end up just as numbers the further away you get from the bombing sites. It’s a well-executed film with dynamic acting, but I was unprepared for how gutted it would also make me feel.

I have not stuck to my writing resolution, but I have stuck to my movie-watching resolution - I’m already at 22 films watched for the year, with 7 directed by women, and while that number feels small, keep in mind that once again there are no women nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, which is just one reason that it is still frustratingly difficult to get access to new female-helmed movies on the big screen. (I wish my life involved trips to film festivals all the time, where you have a better chance at catching some of the films that I can only read about right now. Le sigh.)

Since I’ve been lax in writing, I’m doing a quick-and-dirty recap of the films I saw in January (which it turns out I really like typing up, so maybe I’ll keep doing this in future months. We’ll see.)

This year I set a new movie resolution! Though somewhat less ambitious than 2017 with my Movie A Day project, it still has the potential to expose me to plenty of fantastic films that haven’t crossed my screens as of yet.

For 2019, each week my goal is to watch 3 films that are new to me. Of course I can go over this number, but with the wedding and the job searching and the myriad travels I have ahead of me, I felt three was a reasonable number to aim for. But to keep it interesting, I’ve made sub-goals for my weekly films:

• One film from my collection (I own close to 100 that I haven’t seen… I would like to whittle that down!)
• One film directed by a woman
• One film in cinemas

In reaching these goals, I can always knock off two requirements with one film (‘Desert Hearts’ has been in my collection for months, for example, and is also directed by a woman, so it’s high on my list to pop into the Bluray player!) but I hope that this will keep me energized and searching out new films throughout the year.

I intended to write a weekly blog post about what I’m watching, but I’ve already fallen down on that goal a bit! But there’s no harm in starting now, is there? As we’re still in the middle of the third week of the year, I’ll just reflect on the first two weeks of this plan.

The Seattle International Film Festival has fully kicked off, and I’ve been in films pretty much when I’m not sleeping or eating. (Or jotting down these notes to share with you!) It’s definitely a marathon, this festival, so as fun as it is to jump off the blocks in the first few days with five or six films a day, I’ve got to make sure I don’t lose steam over the next three weeks.

Anyway, it’s a great festival, and there are many many awesome films, so if you are near Seattle anytime before June 10th, you should grab some tickets and check it out! The full line-up and daily schedule can be found online at www.siff.net.

The sun has come out in Seattle, it’s beginning to warm up and feel like summer… and of course I’m shuttering myself away in the cinema for (at least) six hours a day. I clearly have my priorities in order.

Translucent skin notwithstanding, I’m incredibly excited because the Seattle International Film Festival is about to kick into full gear. I’m so pleased to be working with them again in a photographic capacity, and because of that I’ve already seen some early screeners and am armed with suggestions as you plan out your viewing spreadsheet for the festival. (Oh, that’s only me? Okay then.)

Apart from those wonderful festival gems, I encourage you to join Thanos as he seeks out a completely different set of gems in the biggest blockbuster film ever (or something like that). It’s a fantastically good time!

I may not be aiming for 365 films in 2018, but I’m still indulging in as many movies as I can fit into my schedule! I’ve already seen some great films this year, and am finally settling down enough to formulate a posting plan regarding recommendations and general reviews. Considering the Seattle International Film Festival is just around the corner, this feels like good timing!

Getting back on the horse is a challenge, so in this review I’m focusing on just two films. They are very different from each other, but they are both fantastic, and they feature two fabulous female actors in standout performances.

So it’s a new year, 2018 - I hope everyone had a lovely New Year’s holiday, and that your first day back to the grind hasn’t been too painful. I’ve taken down the Christmas decorations, started at least five new resolutions that probably won’t make it to the end of the year, and began compiling a whole new film watchlist for this upcoming year.

But before I begin new cinematic adventures, I wanted to wrap up last year’s MovieADay Project in style! First, a twist for your viewing pleasure - I’ve actually watched 371 films this year, because I found one that I LEFT OFF my list! I have no idea how, but I never added ‘Blade Runner 2049’ to my IMDb list, which meant it never got on my posted list… and now I’m all sorts of confused.

But moving on from that… I’ve had people ask how I managed to watch so many movies, which movies were my favorite, and what kind of movies have I been watching, so I’m going to dive into my list of 371 films and give you my Top Tens, and a few more fun facts about this past year of film watching.

So we’re finally here, New Year’s Eve, the last day of 2017. And I’m proud to say… I did it! I finished my MovieADay project, with a day to spare… and a few extra films in the bank. This year, I watched 370 films for the first time, and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve enjoyed so many wonderful movies - I’m hoping to write up a summary post tomorrow about my thoughts on the whole year (I’ve had people already ask for my top ten films of the project - it’s going to be hard to choose!).

But for now, here is the last roundup post of the year! As always, you can check out my complete MovieADay list on IMDb, and the full list of films 351 through 370 are below my capsule reviews.

I’m rounding the bend, I’m coming down the stretch, I can see the finish line… I’m only a couple of weeks away from wrapping up my MovieADay Challenge for 2017. So this should be my last full 25 film check-in post… anything could happen between now and New Year’s, to be sure - like all the award films being released - but I’m also going to be spending Christmas with my family, so I currently plan to meet my 365 films for the year goal and not much else.

This 25… was very eclectic. I started with a very specific plan, as a 10 day holiday in Hawaii had to be buffered. I was going to watch a bunch of Oscar films, and top 100 films, and cross a chunk of films off my to-watch list. That happened… until it stopped. You’ll notice a dip into easy films, things I could watch on planes and while wrapping presents, as the holidays and travel got the best of me. But I haven’t shirked from my goal, and I’m on track as of writing for the year, so let’s get to the shout-outs and full list for films 326 through 350!

(For those keeping track, the full list of 25 films I’ve watched is listed below the reviews. And you can check out what I’m currently watching by visiting my MovieADay list on IMDb.)

I hit 325 films a week ago, but have been crazy busy with holidays and upcoming trip planning, so this is the first real chance I’ve had to write down any notes about the films I’ve been watching. This post is going to be a bit shorter than usual, as I’m just trying to get it up before I leave on a vacation for a while.

For this chunk of films, I saw so many great movies that I loved, it’s hard to not gush about them all. It also means I don’t have any lowlights in here, as I wanted to save the space for my raves rather than my rants. As always, you can see what I’m watching over on IMDb. And without further ado, let’s get to the reviews.